John Eric Carlson (1861-1951)

John Eric Carlson (1861-1951)

Every week several of you read Emmett Hunt’s diary entries from 1888 and will continue until 1892.  Then perhaps we’ll start on Volume II of his entires.  Today, we are going to read a few selections from the diary of John E. Carlson.

The diaries of the early settlers to America are  quite interesting, and many books and novels have been written for those diary entires.  Which brings me to the question:  do you write in a diary or journal?  What do you entries reveal about you?  Are they about your daily life, or are the about your thoughts, your difficulties or your joys?  Many of us probably kept diaries growing up, but didn’t continue doing so as we grew older.  Most of those who continue that I know are also writers of short stories, essays and novels.  

The important thing about diaries is in my mind what they reveal to us about the times and people are things not available elsewhere.  They help to continue the picture about the time and place past.  It would be interesting for your thoughts about the written records of history from various individuals in all walks of life.

But now, let’s learn about John Carlson from his own words as taken from an article written in The Peninsula Gateway on February 22, 1995 by Kevin Parks:

Swede’s diary entries read like series of historical snapshots

The following are excerpts from a translation of a diary kept by Gig Harbor pioneer John Eric Carlson, who was born in Walinge, Sweden, on Aug. 16, 1861.

July 6, 1882, in Gothenburg:  “I had been thinking some of going to America but I could not get passage until early in July.

One June 21 I quit working, having made up my mind to go to America.  On June 27 I went home to Walinge.  On July 5, I said good-bye to my family.  From home I went to Stigtomta Station, then to Flee and from there to Gothernberg.”

July 7, 1882, aboard the S. S. Romeo, which would take him to Hull, England:  “At 7 o’clock (6 o’clock English time) we received our first food on board.  It consisted of black coffee and something to push it down with.”

By 8:30 they had started to dance, the Finns staying on one side of the ship and the Swedes on the other.  At 10:15 p.m. while the dance was in full swing I went to bed and slept soundly until 8 a.m. July 8.  Breakfast was the same as we had the night before except that the coffee was cold.”

July 12, 1882, aboard the S.S. City of Brussels, which took him from Liverpool, England, to the United States:  “There was plenty of food, all we could eat, and a lot was shown overboard besides.  At 12 o’clock we anchored outside Queenstown, Ireland and picked up about 50 Irishmen also emigrants.  This ship is a big improvement over the Romeo.  There is plenty of room and the food is good and people are beginning to get acquainted.”

July 15, 1882:  “Our crowd consists of Swedes, Englishmen and Irishmen.  The Irishmen sing loudly all the time until midnight, mixed with loud talk and much argument.”

July 16, 1882:  “The Irishmen are a wild and ragged lot, and I have little patience with them.”

July 22, 1882, “New York, N.Y., USA.”:  The trip over has been pleasant enough but I have heard of many that were bad.  The worst we had to contend with was that bunch of Irishmen, but that is all in the past now.”  

“Tacoma is a small city of about 1,000 inhabitants, but it is growing rapidly.”

July 28, 1882, aboard the Union Pacific Railroad:  “The hotel (in Council Bluffs, Iowa) was fine.  We had night lunch, lodging and breakfast for 75 cents.  The weather was fine but not as warm as New York.  We set our clocks again at this place and the time is now seven and a half different from Swedish time.”

Aug. 9, 1882, in “Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.”:  The country is heavy timbered, but half of it is too big for any use.”

Aug. 10, 1882, in “New Tacoma, Washington Territory”:  “At 6 a.m. we took a riverboat from Portland called S. G. Reed.  This boat is propelled by a paddle wheel at the stern.  I have never seen anything like it in Sweden.”

Aug. 13, 1882, “Old Tacoma, Wash. Territory”:  “Yesterday was my first day of work in America, carrying planks in the Old Town Mill.  It is hard work but good pay:  $30 per month without board and lodging.  I will do fine here and this is a beautiful place.  There are many Swedes and Danes here and now and then a Norwegian.  Also there are a good many Chinese and a great many Indians.  The food is good and Anderson and I have a room with a Norwegian family named Kildal.  We pay only one and a half dollars per month, which is cheap.”

At this point, the diary switches from almost daily entries to weekly roundups written each Sunday.

Sept. 3, 1882:  “Today Andren and I went along the beach looking for seashells, then we went for a walk in the woods where we saw much that was new to us and, to our way of thinking, remarkable.”

Oct. 29, 1882:  “The Danes I can understand well enough, and the Norwegians speak almost Swedish.  I am beginning to understand English a little, but it doesn’t go fast.  Nevertheless, one learns a word at a time, so it probably will go with time.”

March 30, 1884:  “Many of the people talk about going to Idaho and digging for gold.  But I must stay here because I have hardly any money and I don’t want to go anyway.”

Aug. 31, 1884:  “I am working on a street called Tacoma Avenue.  It is 10 hours per day and not very heavy either.  We are 26 men in the gang and 23 are Scandinavians.  Even the boss is Swedish.”

Dec. 20, 1885:  “A new Scandinavian church has been consecrated here, so now we have four Scandinavian churches here.  A Swedish society is also formed, bearing the name Wallhalla.  It has 30 to 40 members, but I don’t belong to it.”

Finally, the weekly entries also petered out and he began keeping reviews of entire years in a few sentences.

1903:  “Worked same place as last year.  Wages $2.25.  Worked 322 days in the year.  Bought 40 acres near Gig Harbor from Alexander Ferguson for $480.  Sold the remaining 40 acres of homestead (in a town called, peculiarly , Muck) to John Pearson and Gust Bergman for $350.”

1906:  “Quit the flouring mill March 15.  Went out on the Gig Harbor ranch to build a house and do other work; stayed till July 14/“  

1907:  “Moved the family to the ranch March 16.  Quit Young and Johnson Sept. 1 and went to work on the ranch.  Worked for wages 243 days during the year.  Sold strawberries, cherries, apples and timber for $127.60.”

That is the end of the transcribed diary entries published in the Peninsula Gateway article.  It was accompanied by an article describing his life on his ranch in Gig Harbor.  

When searching ancestry.com I discovered a naturalization document filed in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Washington, Western Division shows John Carlson was born in Ljuder Fjugesja Sweden in the year 1859 attached to the family tree and that he arrived in Minnesota.  The naturalization paper is signed March 7, 1894.  This does not agree with his diary where he states he arrived in New York City in 1882.  As a result, I believe the naturalization document belongs to another John Carlson.

I have been unable to find John Eric (Karlsson) Carlson and Lydia D. Johnson Carlson’s marriage license; nor have I been able to discover how they met.  Perhaps they were friends in Sweden, and then after John arrived in Washington Territory he sent for her.  I don’t know how or the reasoning behind it being stated on the Virginia Beardsley Family Tree.

Also, according to the 1900 US Census it shows that Grace L. Carlson, the first child of John and Lydia was born in Washington (and Grace’s age was shown as 9 years old), not in Minnesota as shown on the Virginia Beardsley Family Tree.  

So let’s leave this mystery and return to the Peninsula Gateway article written by Kevin Parks “Barn stands as legacy to Swede” of February 22, 1995.  The principal contributors to his article appear to be Dr. Ben Carlson and Phillip R. Carlson, born in 1911.  

“Flowing through the veins of the boy, not yet 2, (Dr. Ben Carlson’s son), are the blood of the Smiriciches, a family of fishermen; the Carlson’s, the first of whom worked in the Tacoma lumber mills shortly after arriving in this country from his native Sweden; and the Beardsley, longtime ranchers in the Arletta area.”

“The old red barn the Swedish immigrant built shortly after the turn of the century on what he called his “Gig Harbor ranch” has been sold and will be torn down …”  The building was located in the same area (5115 38th Avenue NW) as the Midway School building which you can visit when you come to the Harbor History Museum.  The Carlson property was “off 38th Avenue NW between Hunt Street and 56th Street NW across from such modern neighborhoods as Brittany Places Plumtree and Harbor Park Estates. …”

“…The land under the barn represented the last of a 40 acre parcel bought in 1903 for $480, (see his diary entry for that year) great-grandson Ben Carlson said.”

“John Carlson, whose last name was originally spelled Karlsson, was born in Walinge, Sweden. …”

“… John Carlson built a house on his “Gig Harbor ranch” in 1906, using lumber from th mills that was too short to be sold, according to one of his sons, Phillip R. Carlson, who was born on the ranch in 1911. …”  (Phillip was a retired physicist living in Pasadena)

“… Phillip Carlson recalls a time when people could tell without looking who was driving by in a car.  We knew the sound of each automobile.   We knew all our neighbors.  For 10 miles around we knew everybody who lived on every place.”

“Phillip Carlson graduated from high school when he was 16.  There were all of 100 kids in the whole school, which drew students from as far away as Longbranch, he said.  Despite the small number of students, the school fielded a football team, Carlson said.  He even played on it.  As far as I remember we never won a game, he said.”

“As for the old red barn that’s about to pass into history, Phillip Carlson remembered that whenever there was a bumper crop of hay the children all got to do somersaults on it to pack it down so it would fit in the loft.”

“John Carlson served for a time as chairman of the school board, son Phillip Carlson said.  One of the chairman’s jobs was the hiring of new teachers, and John Carlson did this in a unique way, his son said.  He’d look at their handwriting and say, ‘They look like they could be a pretty good teacher,’  Phillip Carlson said.”

“Virginia Smiricich, one of John Carlson’s granddaughters and Dr. Ben Carlson’s mother, grew up in Yakima but spent summers on the Gig Harbor ranch.  She remembers the old red barn with fondness.  ‘I remember the hayloft, playing in the hay up there in the summer, she said.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Henry Eugene Allen and Juanita Fay Allen

Groceries to suds:  “The Tides” overflows with history by Barbara Felver, Gateway Staff

Wednesday, June 8, 1988 - Page 9A

Editors note:  The following is the first of a two-part series on the history behind the building now recognized as simply “The Tides.”  Here we follow the story up the late 1960s when one of the business’ most colorful and well-known owners came on the scene.  The second part of the series next week will pick up the story from there.

Our Harbor History Museum blog is only reproducing the first part because we wish to place emphasis on Henry Allen, the father of Richard B. Allen and grandfather of Carolyn Allen and Kristine Allen.  Although Henry did not live in Gig Harbor for a lengthy period of time he did make a substantial contribution to our community.  

Just after the turn of the century, Axel Uddenberg built his second grocery store to set up his 16 year-old son Bert in business.  The building quickly became a hub of community activity.

The Uddenbergs could not know that nearly 80 years later their building would house something of a latter-day landmark in Gig Harbor.

The walls they built now contain the Tides Tavern, a gathering place whose name springs to mind for many people at the mere mention of Gig Harbor.

This week Tides patrons will celebrate the tavern’s 15th year under its current ownership by Peter Stanley.  They will gather to lift glasses in a room where, more than seven decades ago, groceries were lifted into wheelbarrows for delivery around town.

It seemed a good opportunity to look back not just 15 years, but to take a peek at how the little building has grown up with the town.

Gladys Para of the Peninsula Historical Society, and owner Stanley, helped collect pieces of the building’s long history.

Thank you, Teddy R.

The earliest recorded transaction on the property took place in September, 1904, when Samuel Jerisich received a certificate of homestead from the federal government for 166.5 acres.  The certificate bore the name of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Jerisich’s widow, Anna, sold a portion of the homestead to Axel and Angeline Uddenberg in 1911.

Axel already had a thriving grocery business at the head of the harbor, near where Neville’s Shorline restaurant stands.  He built a second store at the newly purchased site, and put his young son Bert in charge.  The son-and-pop grocers ran adjacent competing advertisements in the news paper each week.

The business occupied two buildings:  one towards the waterfront housing a hay and feed store, and the West Side Grocery in the area now occupied by the main indoor portion of the tavern.  In the present deck area was a boat shed.

One of the three docks around the harbor, the public People’s Dock, ran alongside the property to the south.  For many years the country-run ferry stopped there.  Records show one of the property’s owners awarding the country an easement for public passage to the ferry landing, n the mid-20s.  The dock provided Bert Uddenberg with a steady stream of customers and ready transit for goods and supplies. 

Bert and his wife, Ebba, were married in 1917.  The couple’s children, Shirley Knapp, Lola Kooley and Bert Jr., who now reside in Gig Harbor, have early childhood memories of their father delivering groceries by wheelbarrow and truck around town.

Kooley also remembered the day a Flivver, heading toward the dock, lost its brakes.  Its two passengers yelled “Hold ‘er!  Hold ‘er!” but could not prevent it from sending a farm fresh load of loganberries in every direction.

World War I broke out, and Bert went to war.  In 1919 his father sold the store to Austin and Harriet Richardson.  According to county records, the Richardsons kept the land until 1942.  The businesses on it changed hands a couple times.

The first tavern

With the end of Prohibition, George and Sophie Magnuson took over and open the Ferry Tavern in the grocery building.  Sophie ran the tavern, a favorite watering hole for locals and visitors by water.

Clinton and Margie Haury, a Seattle couple, bought the business from Sophie and the land from the Richardsons in 1942.

Clint Haury had started the first commercial herring business in the Puget Sound, and recently had  discovered Gig Harbor to be an excellent source of supply.  Margie Huary, now 83, recalled picking up the next day’ supply at the close of business each day, from the Huary’s’  dock inSeattle.

Daily operation of the store and tavern were entrusted for a while to family members.  With the death of Clinton’s father, the most recent manager, he needed someone to manage the business.

Henry Allen was working at The Bon in Seattle.  In June of ’43 he visited the area for his friend Clint.  While here he cast in a couple lines, and brought up a couple salmon.  The next morning he caught another.  But it was Allen who was hooked.

“I decided I wanted to stay,” said spry Allen, who is 83 now.  “I bought into the business.”

A month to the day from his visit, Allen and his wife, Juanita, bought a half-share in the operation which now included Haury’s Boathouse and the Ferry Tavern.  The total cost of the property and businesses, shared by both families, was $2,500 to $3,000, he recalled.

Juanita ran the tavern; Henry managed the Gig Harbor end of the herring business, plus moorages.  Herring sold for 25 cents a dozen.  The Allen lived in an apartment located about where the women’s restroom is now.

The way they were

Allen thought back to the Gig Harbor of the early ’40s.

“in the time I was here, nothing changed,” he said.  “Nobody moved out; nobody moved in.  You could drive here to Arletta and maybe see a shack here and there… There was no law.  No town marshall.”

Spirits had to be imbibed inside.

“We never made any money in the tavern,” he said.  “We sold beer for 10 cents a glass, and a bottle for about 20 cents.  Wine was about 20 cents for a six-ounce glass.”

Their biggest day — during Gig Harbor’s centennial celebration —- brought in less than $500.

After they had been here about a year, the Allen hired “Maddie” Hadkinson, a woman who lived across the harbor, to cook up a little sustenance.  Allen built a kitchen.  Other cooks followed Maddie.

The Huarys and Allen shared the operation for five years, although after four years Juanita Allen quit the tavern business she disliked.  She returned to Seattle.

“We had guys come here and sit in the bar all day,” he explained.  It was an unsavory atmosphere for his pretty young wife, who was quite an attraction there.  In ’47 the Allen sold their interest to the Haurys.

“I finally sold it back to him because I had bought in cheap and he was a very honest businessman,” Allen noted.  “I had a good time here; I would have stayed here …”

Allen retained other business dealings with Haury, both in Gig Harbor and Seattle.  They shared the ownership of land near the spit, and in ’46 jointly purchased 1,200 feet of Seattle waterfront from Todd Shipyard— for $15,000 down.

Haury kept the tavern and herring business here until 1956, when he sold to Earl and Irma Robinson.  Over the next decade, the tavern changed hands several times and was the subject to several legal disputes.

Then in 1969, a man who had been brought in to entertain the customers with his songs put $8,000 down on the business.

He called himself Three Fingered Jack. 

I’m hoping to gather a far more detailed history of Henry and Juanita Allen and their family.  As soon as it is available I shall naturally put another blog about the Allen on site.  But, I hope you enjoyed the Peninsula Gateway article written in 1988.

But it jar people’s memories,  I have also include the obituaries of Juanita Fay and Henry Eugene Allen because Henry’s also filled in many gaps about his life.

Juanita F. Allen

Services were held on June 27 (1983) for Bothell resident Juanita F. Allen.  She was 75 years old when she died on June 23.

The homemaker was born in Marionville, Pa.

She is survived by Henry E. Allen of Bothell; sons, Robert G. Allen of Seattle and Richard B. Allen of Gig Harbor; sister, Gerald G. Reynolds of Everett; nephew, Jack Reynolds of Gig Harbor; granddaughters Carolyn Allen and Kristine Frisbie, both of Gig Harbor; and two great granddaughters.

Services were held at the Acacia Funeral Home in Bothell, with inurnment following in the Acacia Mausoleum.

Acacia Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

Henry Eugene Allen

12/25/1904 - 8/16/2007

Henry was born on Christmas Day in Besamae, Texas.  He was the son of a railroad engineer.

The family migrated west for employment opportunities.  while he attended Queen Anne High School at 15, Henry worked at Piper & Taft Sporting Goods assembling bicycles alongside Eddie Bauer, a friend and frequent hunting and fishing partner.  This marked the beginning of a long, successful career of merchandising sports equipment.  For a brief time in the 40s, Henry and his family moved to Gig Harbor and owned and operated the Ferry Tavern, later to be renamed the Tides Tavern.  Henry returned to Seattle to be the regional buyer and also the manager of the sporting goods department at the flagship downtown Seattle Frederick & Nelson Department Store in 1950.  Upon retirement in 1964, he moved with his wife Juanita to Okanogan County, where they owned and operated Spectacle Falls Resort until his second retirement in 1976.

Hunting and fishing were his passions.  As recently stated by Henry. “Life isn’t worth living if you can’t hunt and fish.”  Henry made his last fishing trip at the age of 101.  Henry was recently recognized at the Pogie Club, an outdoorsman organization in Seattle, at its 75th anniversary celebration, as the longest-living charter member.  Henry continued to live independently until just recently.

Henry is survived by his son Dick (Elsie), his granddaughters Kristine Allen and Carolyn Dupille, and his four great-children Kate Burnham, Molly Frisbie, Rodney Dupille, and Mallory Dupille.  He was preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, Juanita, his son Bob, and his brother Bert.

When others asked Henry his secret to longevity, he would respond. “I only worry about the things I can do something about.”  Henry was a positive man with a love of life.  He filled his life with his family and friends.

The family would like to thank Dr. Paul Schneider and the staff of Cottesmore for their wonderful care and compassion.

At Henry’s request, no services were held.

Ref:  The Peninsula Gateway

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

The Kimballs

The Kimballs

Organic gardening, GMOs, home gardens, food we eat…all these various topics are in the news on a daily basis.  Of course there are not new; people have been talking about them for a long time.  It really became fashionable to discuss organic foods in the 60s with Richard Olney and Julia Child…oh, mustn’t forget James Beard.  These chefs were followed by Alice Waters, Billy West and July Waters at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. And, of course there were all those hippies returning “to the land” forming communes across the states. 

Julia Child made her appearance on US television with her “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” cookbook and Boston Public Television network started a weekly program featuring her.  One of her main topic was the French approach to foods.  James Beard’s approach was to concentrate on American food, but not on processed foods.

So, with these on-going conversations, I thought it would be a good idea to zoom in on one of Gig Harbor’s own early organic commercial gardeners. Norman Kimball.

Norman was born in Kansas City, Kansas on October 1, 1888.  He died at the Washington Veterans Home in Restil, Kitsap County, Washington on February 23, 1977 at age 88.  

Norman’s family arrived in 1890.  William Henry Kimball (1846-1910) and Anna L. (Annie or Ann) Dow Kimball (1848-1925) came with their children William Henry, Jr. (1872-1923); Arminda Kay (Minnie) (1874-1959); Della   (1877-1953); Charles Leslie (Charley) (1879-1951); Franklin Napoleon (Frank) (1881-1960); Edson Chesney (1884-1968); George Delmar (1886-1909); Norman (1888-1977); Lewis C. (1890-1941).  

Only William, Annie, Edson, Norman, Della  and Lewis are shown on the 1910 United States Census as living in Gig Harbor.  Lewis was actually born in Pierce County 20 years earlier.  (William was born in Canada and first arrived in the US at age 12 and then age 14, ancestry.com shows him living in Michigan.  By age 25 he was living in Kansas where he met and married Annie.  All the children other than Lewis were born in Kansas.

The Kimball family settled on some land at the top of Stinson hill where there built their farmhouse and developed their farm.  As the boys grew up most went on to also become farmers.  William Sr. was a Civil War veteran and pensioner.  He had joined the Michigan calvary as a young boy on 4/18/1863, and was wounded during one of the battles.  Following his death, Norman remained at home, caring for his mother, Annie.  His brother Harold built his home across the way, just east of Pioneer Street.

The Kimball House below the original home on Stinson Hill.  AnnaDow Kimball standing by steps

Norman’s occupation on his 1917 World War I draft Registration Card is shown as logger.  During his tour in the US Army where he served in France from 1917-1919. Following the WWI, the 1920 Census, he is still working in the lumber industry as a steam engineer.  I presume, as I have not found confirmation, that his occupation was as steam engineer for the donkey engine (steam donkey) which was used in logging operations.

By 1930 when the US Census was taken, Norman had changed his occupation to farmer, and his 1942 World War II Draft Registration Card confirms this occupation.  However his obituary states that he continued working in both farming and logging through the 1930s.  In the 1940s he gave up logging to devote himself and all his labor to his garden.

But we’re talking about his organic farming rather than the other occupations he had during his lifetime.  Had his father always farmed organically, without chemicals?  Or was this the result of the something he had read written by J. I. Rodale in the 1940s?  

Rodale is accepted as the father of the US modern organic farming movement.  In the 1940s he provided the majority of information on “non-chemical” farming whether it be the methods or just the information.  His ideas started with Sir Albert Howard, a British scientist who spent years in India observing their traditional methods of farming.  Some of the systems he then advocated included crop rotation which generally the farmers did before, returning crop residues, green manures and wastes to the soil.  As well as using deep-rooted crops to draw nutrients from the soil.

Norman Kimball's squash vines and showing how very rocky the soil was on the property

But something told Norman than organic farmers was the only way to farm.  And, he was successful with his crops by following the “new methods and systems”.  And it looks like Norman was indeed a follower of Rodale’s according to this newspaper article I came across.  Unfortunately, the date was not written on the clipping, nor the name of the newspaper.  I presume it was The Peninsula Gateway..

1940s sign advertising Norman Kimball's produce

Norman Kimball’s Organic Gardens

At Gig Harbor

It was the editor’s privilege recently to visit Norman Kimball’s gardens at the north edge of town, Mr. Kimball taking us on a tour of inspection covering several acres of well-tilled soil.  We have never seen a finer and healthier production of vegetables and some fruits grown anywhere.  The soil of Norman’s garden is somewhat rocky, and like much of our other soil in this locality, however, he is dealing with factors that are not universality used.  He does not use any of the usual commercial fertilizers, or poison spray baits of any kind.  On the other hand for the past four years he has endeavored to build up his soil through information he has obtained from the publication, “Organic Gardening.”  This information has enabled him to do wonders in the matter of increased production.  In short he uses a “compost” which is composed of about everything that grows in a garden such as weeds and grass mixed with chicken fertilizer.  He showed us an apple tree that was about dead four years ago, but now through the aid of compost has grown a fine healthy crop of apples.

This season Norman’s garden has produced an abundance of beans, corn, strawberries, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cantaloupes, carrots, squash, beets, watermelons, hot peppers, sweet peppers, cabbage, cucumbers and celery.

Norman Kimball is to be congratulated on the splendid work he is doing in his shoes calling.

Norman Kimball cultivating his field 1940s

Farm and house behind the field at end of harvest season showing the corn stubble in background before structures

Norman never married, but he was far from without family or friends.  His brothers and sisters remained in Gig Harbor although they moved away from the original homestead.  George died in a logging accident when a tree fell on him in 1909.  Edson died in 1968 while in the hospital and his wife Mary died in 1974 at age 86.  Lewis died in 1941 and his wife Mae died in 1982 at age 86.  Their son, Rev. Stuart Lewis Kimball taught in elementary schools for several years and youth and music ministries at several local churches.  He went on to study religion at Columbia University and the University of California being ordained in 1957 in the Congregation Christian Church.  

Norman moved to the Washington Veterans Home in Retsil near Port Orchard in 1971.  He died there seven years later.  His obituary reads as follows:

Gig Harbor Pioneer Passes Away at Retsil

Mr. Norman Kimball, 88, of the Washington State Veterans Home, Retsil, WA, passed away Feb. 23.

He was born October 1, 1888, in Kansas City, KS and at the age of one year he moved to Gig Harbor where he was reared and educated.  He farmed and logged in the Gig Harbor area until he retired in 1930.  He then raised vegetables and sold them in Gig Harbor until 1940*.  He lived in Gig Harbor until he moved to Retsil in 1971 where he lived until the present time.

He joined the army in 1917 and served in France until his discharge in 1919.

He was a member of the V.F.W. (1854 Lodge Gig Harbor, WA).

He is survived by several nieces and nephews.

Services were conduction at the Washington State Veterans Home, Retsil, on Monday, Feb. 28, under the direction of Pendelton-Gilchrist, with V.F.W. Post 1854 of Gig Harbor, conducting the military rites.

Honorary pallbearers were Harold Kimball, Walt Hanson, Martin Skrivanich, Tony Novak, Pete Klenak, Chuck Olafson, Carl Meyer, Earl Hahn, Larry McIntosh, and Ernie Johnstone.

* We know from the newspaper article referenced above that Norman continued gardening through the 1940s.

Notes:  

- The Peninsula Gateway

- Ancestry.com

- Various obituaries mentioned in the body of the blog; most from The Peninsula Gateway

- Country Home (George Delmar Kimball obituary)

- Harbor History Museum Smugmug

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Horsehead Bay Garden Club

Horsehead Bay Garden Club

I hope everyone has noticed the lovely flower boxes around the waterfront filled with flowers and greenery.  They’re looking better than they have in the past because this year the Horsehead Bay Garden Club not only planted them, but also maintaining them on a bi-weekly basis.  Gig Harbor is so lucky to have people and organizations who contribute so much time and effort to help maintain our our beautiful community.

But, how many of us non-gardeners know about the Horsehead Bay Garden Club?  Perhaps it you regularly attended the annual Tacoma Community College fundraiser “Gig Harbor Garden Tour” started in 1998.  

In the 1930s The Amateur Garden Club in Gig Harbor was quite active as a social club.  Perhaps they played a part in encouraging a group of women living in the Horsehead Bay area to start a similar club closer to their homes.  I can’t say they did, but in the 1930-140 garden clubs were very popular.  The again, perhaps it was due to activities at the Gig Harbor Grange #445.

But rather than speculate, let me share with you a document I found in the Research Room at the Harbor History Museum.

The First Ten Years

On Thursday afternoon, October 9, 1941, a group of ladies of the Horsehead Bay area were invited by Mrs. F. A. Valentine to meet at her home for luncheon and to consider organizingg a garden club.

Present, in addition to the hostess, were Mesdames Ray Arnold, A. H. Anderson, Frank Lamborn, J. C. Sails, A. G. Smith, Lantern, Baird, and MacAllaster Moore.

Mrs. Valentine’s idea met with enthusiastic response and there our club was born and christened The Horsehead Bay Garden Club.

Mrs. MacAllaster Moore was chosen Chairman of the group.  There were no other officers, no dues, and no by-laws.  each year Mrs. Moore was reelected, the only officer, until in October, 1945, it was decided by the club that the duty required a second officer.  Mrs. George Kenna was elected to serve as Vice-President-Treasurer, Mrs. Moore to serve as President-Secretary.

In October, 1946, the club’s first constitution and by-laws were presented by a committee composed of Mrs. J. C. Sails, Mrs. R. E. Borhek, Mrs. George Kennan, Mrs. A. F. Gookins and Mrs. F. M. Cole.  These by-laws were unanimously approved and adopted, and under them the following officers were elected:

President Mrs. MacAllaster Moore

Vice-President Mrs. Roland Borhek

Secretary Mrs. J. C. Sails

Treasurer Mrs. Fred A. wood

Executive Committee) Mrs. Harry Visser

Members-at-Large    ) Mrs. George Kennan

Dues were instituted at this time at $1.00 per year.

In October, 1947, Mrs. George Kennan was elected President.  She was succeed in 1948 by Mrs. J. C. Sails.  Mrs. Roland Borhek was our next president, serving two years, 1949 to 1951, when she was succeeded by Mrs. Elvin Larson.

During the first five years, the attendance varied from five or six to ten.  We met for luncheon, until, in October, 1945, with increasing membership, it was voted to serve dessert and coffee only, with members bringing their own sandwiches.

Charter members who remained and worked with the club in its early years were Mrs. A. H. Anderson, Mrs. CLarence Spinney, Mrs. Robert Hendry, Mrs. Lanterman, Mrs. J. C. Sails, Mrs. George Kennan, Mrs. MacAllaster Moore and of course, our founder, Mrs. F. A. Valentine.

In our first year our programs were, first:  Chrysanthemums, In November, 1941, with a paper on new hardy varieties by Mrs. F. A. Valentine, an article by Mrs. A. G. Smith and general discussion and planting, pruning and growing.

In December, our second meeting, we were instructed in wreath making, using holly and mixed greens.

Our guest speaker for February was A. C. Richardson, Pierce County Agricultural Agent.  Mr. Richardson became our good friend and ever-ready help as we struggled with our Victory Gardens through 1942 and the ensuing war years - and he always had gasoline in those rationed times to come to us when other speakers could not.

Gail Clark, not so famous a garden authority then as she later became, through radio and television, was our guest speaker in May of our first year.

In August, 1942, Mrs. Alvin Allard of Tacoma gave us a memorable flower arrangement demonstration.  To quote from the record of that meeting:  “Particularly interesting were Mrs. Allard’s use of stones, bits of driftwood, and coral fans as backgrounds and accents for her floral pictures.”

During 1942, the club started its “Red Cross Project”, the making of afghans for Madigan Army Hospital.  We met once each week at the Moore home to crochet and assemble squares and sew them together.  Later in the war we also made dish gardens in large clam and oyster shells for Madigan Hospital.

The war, coming as it did less than two months after the club’s organization, had a serious effect upon the club program, as it did upon our individual lives.  Because of gas rationing, it became difficult to get speakers.  This had a good effect, however, as it made us self-reliant in our programs, and in as small a group as ours, the general forum, led by the Chairman, was an informative and stimulating method.

Victory gardens soon became our most important horticultural activity, and experienced vegetable growers such as Mrs. Kennan, Mrs. Lanterman and Mrs. Anderson were towers of strength to us struggling amateurs, to whom each single aphid loomed as large as an elephant on a precious broccoli plant.

A constructive act was the sponsoring by our club of an all day canning and freezing demonstration by the County Agents’ Office Home Economics Department, at the Arletta School, open to the general public.  This seemed to meet a very real need in those war days.

In October, 1943, the club held its first tiny flower show.  Mrs. J. C. Whoitmore of Rosedale, Mrs. John Davies of Wauna were judges.  The schedule was as follows:

1. Living Room Decoration, Judged on Arrangement
2. Specimen Bloom - Any flower, judged on perfection of flower and foliage
3. Chrysanthemum, Specimen
4. Miniture - Arrangement
5. Wild Foliage - Flower or berry arrangement 

If this schedule sounds amusing in comparison with the elaborate ones seen in flower shows now, remember that only eight members participated, and that it was quite in accordance with the best in flower show schedules of that period.

June, 1944, brought our second flower show at the home of Mrs. Valentine, with Mrs. J. C. Sails and Mrs. F. A. Wood, the Committee in charge.  The schedule was not recorded, but the minutes show twenty three present, members and guests, with Mrs. Roland Borhek and Mrs. John Davies judges.

We felt ourselves ready for a more ambitious show in June, 1945, and this was held at the Arletta School.  The building was perfect for the purpose and the show was so lovely that we held a second show there in August of the following year, 1946.  

Judges in 1945 were again Mrs. Borhek and Mrs. Davies.  By 1946, Mrs. Borhek was one of our own members and Mrs. J. C. Whoitmore served as judge with Mrs. Davies.

On October 29, 1946, our club along with Vaughn and Wollochet Garden Clubs joined with Amateur Garden Club of Gig Harbor in a large Silver Tea, presenting as speaker Margaret McKenny of Olympia.  Miss McKenny, nationally acclaimed naturalist, author and photographer showed colored slides to illustrate her very fine lecture.  This was a very successful Affair, with excellent attendance.

In autumn of 1946, our club was asked by the Arletta School P.T.A. to assist in planting shrubs on the school grounds.  Mrs. Ben Pearson was appointed chairman of a committee, together with Mrs. Forrest Wise and Mrs. Ernest Elmore, to act upon this matter.  Club members donated some shrubs and a start, at least, was made, later to be carried on by the P.T.A.

On May, 1947, Mrs. Archie Blair arranged a very special treat for us.  The club was invited to lunch and our regular meeting at her home in Tacoma, after which we toured the Gravelly Lake gardens of the W. W. Keyes home.  Mrs. Keyes was most gracious, showing us over there grounds, the green houses, even the stables to introduce us to her riding horses.  After leaving Mrs. Keyes, we also saw the Lowell T. Murray gardens.

For our summer highlight of 1947, the club decided, rather than a flower show, to present Cecil Solly as speaker at a picnic, inviting the other Peninsula garden clubs as guests.  It rained and the picnic moved to the Arletta School, with a very good attendance.  Mr. Richardson, our County Agent, was a guest speaker on this occasion.

Our next flower show was held in the summer of 1949, under Mrs. Sails’ presidency, at the home of Mrs. Valentine.  Judges were Mrs. C. W. Schuh and Mrs. H. C. Mandell of Tacoma Garden Club.  Mrs. Borhek was Show Chairman.  We were highly complimented by the judges for the quality of our exhibits and the artistic staging.  We purchased burlap for the table covers and corrugated cardboard for background and each arrangement had its own little niche, making a very effective display.  Mrs. Fred A. Wood was chairman of staging.

At the first meeting of Mrs. J. C. Sails’ administration, organizing secretary of Capital District, Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs spoke to us of the benefits of Federation.  In December of that year our club voted to join the Federation.

Under Mrs. Sails’ leadership, the tradition of our Christmas decoration show was started; this feature has become a regular and interesting part of our program.

Practice in flower exhibiting during the years “48, “49, ’50 was advanced by our clubs participation in the Spring Flower Show given by the Wollochet Bay Garden Club.  Each club of the area was given a table, and Horsehead Bay took first award at each of these three shows, mostly because we tried always to express a theme in our display.

In August, 1949, a flower show and guest tea was held at the home of Mrs. Cleon Soule, the Soule’s garage being transformed for ourshow room.  Mrs. D. P. Murphy and Mrs. I. R. Hunter were co-chairmen.  Mrs. R. S. Harvey and Mrs. Wm. Goering, of Tacoma, were judges - our first use of judges accredited by National Council.  Staging Chairman was Mrs. Roland Borhek.

For the season 1949-1950, the program committee, under the Chairman, Mrs. C. W. Larsen, gave the club its first year-book.  In an effort to keep the cost of mimeographing down, the work was taken to the local high school, which was a sad mistake, because their work was of a quality to make rather a mess of the committee’s careful preparation.  Each member was to decorate the cover of her own book, and next year this practice was followed again, a small prize given for the book cover receiving the most votes by the club.

When Mrs. Elvin Larson took office as President, in 1951, one of her first official acts was to appoint a committee to study the by-laws in effect since 1946, with a view toward revising them to meet changing conditions.  Our club was growing up, membership was nearing the limit to be taken care of in our homes.

This committee, composed of Mrs. MacAllaster Moore, Mrs. Roland Borhek and Mrs. I. L. Hunter, together with the President, Mrs. Elvin Larson, met many times and made a thorough study of the matter, with help from the club.

The new by-laws were finally adopted in August, 1952, and almost immediately became subject to revision as new problems arose.

Another achievement of the 1951 season was the commencement of a regular publicity program, with monthly newspaper accounts of club activities.

So, Clippings, take it from here!!!

Alice C. Moore

Historian

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary Entry for February 1, 1888

Good day but somewhat foggy.  Arose in the early morn and steamed to V's Bay then back to town whereafter some trouble with feeders we reached at 12.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary Entry for January 25, 1888

Rough windy & very rainy.  Cleaned out boiler and wooded and watered.  That's all.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary Entry for January 18, 1888

Calm and nice; by light snow is about all gone.  Took a scow out to Euall Yard.  x bros one up --- then wooded up, or rather slabbed up for it would be hardly merit the name wood.  See the "Beggar Student"in eve.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.